PROTECTING GOOLE'S NATURAL HISTORY FOR FUTURE GENERATIONS
The Birch Wood
PROTECTING GOOLE'S NATURAL HISTORY FOR FUTURE GENERATIONS
The Birch Wood
THE BIRCH WOOD
The birch wood at Oakhill Nature Reserve is a quiet, lightly wooded area that adds to the reserve’s mix of habitats. Made up of slender birch trees with an undergrowth of grasses, shrubs and young saplings, it has a more open, airy feel than denser woodland.
A thin piece of predominantly birch woodland which follows the old railway embankment and a focus for woodland birds on the site including Great-Spotted Woodpecker, Treecreeper and Goldcrest. Speckled Wood butterflies frequent the sunny glades and in Autumn Fly Agaric Fungi brings a touch of Red to the woodland floor.
It provides a peaceful, sheltered space where wildlife can thrive, supporting birds, insects and small mammals among the trees. Like the rest of Oakhill, it reflects the site’s natural regeneration, with woodland gradually reclaiming land that was once industrial, creating a calm and natural setting for visitors to explore.
WHAT YOU'LL NOTICE
In the Birch Wood you’ll find wildlife that prefers light woodland and scrub habitats. It’s quieter than the pond, but there’s still plenty to spot if you look and listen. The birch trees are great for woodland birds like tits, robins, wrens, woodpeckers and finches. You’ll often hear birds before you see them, especially in Spring.
The birch wood also supports an enormous variety of insect life. You’ll notice caterpillars and moths feeding on birch leaves, and beetles and ants in dead wood and leaf litter. Butterflies visiting sunny clearings and spiders weaving webs amongst the branches. In warmer months the woodland can be quite active.
Mammals here are harder to spot but you might come across small mammals like mice and voles in the undergrowth. Grey squirrels moving through the trees and bats feeding at dusk.
The real showstopper is the Birch trees themselves, with their distinctive white bark. Mosses and grasses on the woodland floor and fungi appearing in Autumn makes this a magical place to explore.
